Pandemonium Con 2 – Matt Daddario Panel
The Matt panel included a lot of pre-organisation due to the fact that it had recently been Matthew’s birthday, and some fans had got him a cake, a birthday book, and planned to spell out ‘Happy 32nd Birthday Matt’ with A4 paper, with animals on the back.
The plan… mostly worked.
Matt arrives on stage
Moderator: How are you feeling?
Matt: I’m feeling great!
Mod: Good. I’d just like to apologise in advance
Matt looks around the room, scared
Audience starts to sing happy birthday, as fans standing in a row along one wall hold up A4 paper with animals on, and another fan bring a caterpillar cake down the aisle to the stage. Matt hides his face in his hands. As the song finishes, the fans along the wall turn the paper around, to spell out HAPP 32nd BIRTHDAY MAT, as the Y has gone missing and the T was in the Meet & Greet with Matthew and hasn’t got back to the panel room yet.
Matt: Okay, right away… number 3 and number 2, let’s switch you around…
Matt takes in the cake
Matt: First of all thank you. That was very very sweet. I do have a little thing I want to say… that a birthday is an opportunity once a year where everyone around you gets to just yell at you and you just sit and be quiet. You sit there and you say (quietly) ‘Thank you. Thank you.’, in this moment where everyone is looking at me. That’s what happens.
And I love this caterpillar cake. I assume it is edible? Shall we cut it?
Mod: It’s for you to take
Matt: Oh. I have to take it to green room? Okay. (to audience) Unless you guys want cake?
Mod: I think they want to ask you questions…
Matt: Okay, we won’t discuss happy birthday any further but whoever was responsible for all this… I’ll get you later!
Mod: We do have one more little thing for you
Matt: No, why? No, no… why!?! It’s not fair…
Mod: The fans asked because they love you, what did you want me to do. Say no?
Matt: Okay, okay, okay, fine…
Matt is presented with a gift and his birthday book
Matt: I’m literally sweating right now!
Mod: I hear it’s pretty amazing, I’m sure you’ll love it
Matthew wipes sweat from his brow and sighs loudly
Mod: I’ve not seen it myself but I think it’s –
Matt: Is anyone here actually comfortable on their birthday? Do you want gifts? YES! I deserve these gifts! Also sing me my birthday song right now! Put fire on top of a sugary treat and I will blow it out and then the gods will grant me a wish! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!
Mod: This is from 5 or 6 people..
Matt: 5 or 6? That’s 5 or 6 too many! Birthdays should be spend ALONE. In a cave so people can’t come at you and sing the song! – – Actually it should be a game! It should be that on your birthday everyone just tries to hunt you. So at any given time 1/365th of the population is hiding. And some percentage of the rest are hunting. Every day would be way more interesting.
Mod: We’ll do that next year! You will hide and we’ll hunt you
Matt: But you know where I am
Mod: Maybe you should wear a disguise or something?
Matt: Ah yes… I’ll be the one with the mask on
Mod: Well, thank you everyone who was involved in this!
Matt: Thank you guys, really, thank you
Mod: everyone who has questions, line up as discussed before please. (to Matt) Did you think that all those people wanted to ask questions when you came in?
Matt: Well, I was like ‘I hate to say it, but I don’t see it happening…’
Everyone starts to get back to their seat. Matt takes a deep breath and exhales loudly
Matt: So that’s done now… maybe afterwards we can do something equally as fun, like getting your teeth drilled…
Fan: If Magnus is angry, what does Alec do to make the situation better?
Matt: It depends on the situation. Why is Magnus angry? …like any other good person, he evaluates the source of the anger, then seeks a non-violent way to discuss what might be the underlying problem, and then they come to a… a… what’s the word I’m looking for?
Audience: Compromise
Matt: …they figure it out. And before you know it, they’re right back to being happy with each other, because what’s the point? What are you going to be all angry about, anyway? I’m 32. Time keeps marching on towards that end. If I’m going to spend any of it angry, (points at audience) it’s going to be with you.
I’m kidding. Some of you were going ‘whoa!’ and I want to make something very clear here. I’m being sarcastic. And I really appreciate the birthday. And I like the song, it’s touching. But you know… I get awkward.
But there you go. Thank you very much. I’ve solved the problem. Next question!
Mod: Can I ask you, while you are talking, can you make sure to look at the right side of the room as well (the question queue is on the left) because they’re saying that this side of your face is really ugly, so they’d like you to turn around
Matt: Aha! I knew it!
Mod: Obviously they’re not saying that, it’s just that the queue is over here, so try and look both ways
Matt: Actually, that’s a good point and very good practice… for… other times I am going to be speaking on a stage. (laughter) Okay, next question. (Matt dramatically turns away from the question queue towards his right and stares at the audience on that side)
Fan: How many dates did it take before AU Malec became a couple?
Matt: How do you know they became a couple? (audience protests) Okay, okay… How many dates would it take? I mean… what really is a couple? When are you really a couple? Is it after the first time you went to dinner? It all depends on what happens in the future! Because the reality is that if you see someone day 1, and then you get married 3 years later, then you were technically a couple from day 1. Unless there were some other things going on. I hope there weren’t! (Matt stops to think about it)
There weren’t! Of course there weren’t! So they were a couple since the first time they met.
However if they take some sort of ongoing break somewhere along the line, then the time starts again, so it all depends on what happens in the future. But in the moment, you would say ‘we’re a couple’ after you’ve been on some dates. Do you know what I mean? It’s like… history is what happened, right?
Fan: So they’re married, too?
Matt: You are looking for iron clad confirmation on whether they are married in the alternate universe? Well… The only constant in the multi-dimensional Shadowhunters universe is that Magnus and Alec are married in every single one of them. (Audience cheers)
And that Clary is difficult… NEXT!
Fan: What is the most anticipated thing on your birthday?
Matt: I really like it when everybody sings the song… (laughter)
I like that on your birthday you kind of get a pass from each person you meet. You can go and steal a loaf of bread and if they catch you, you say ‘it’s my birthday’ and they go ‘In that case this one’s on us!’.
Also in your personal relationships, you also get a pass. That’s the day when no one gets to be mad at you. They have to bite their tongue, which gives you an opportunity to antagonise them. You can go ‘I don’t really like the food you’ve prepared for me’ and they’ll go (through clenched teeth) ‘oh, I’m so sorry’ and because it’s your birthday, they can’t say anything.
You get to be special for one day a year. And the rest of the time you are just… normal.
That’s what I like the most (turns to audience and whispers) THE POWER….
Fan: If you could live as any Disney character for one day, who would you pick?
Matt: I mean… Disney owns half the universe right now. I think they own like 55% of the entire entertainment space right now, so my options include all of the Star Wars universe, which is pretty great. I assume you are talking about the original Disney. The big 6. Lion King, Aladdin, that kind of things… I would be the hyenas in Lion King. They have a dope thing going on. They are completely insane and they seem to be enjoying themselves all the time, laughing, rolling on their backs. So that’s who I would be.
Fan: If you had to give up your bow and arrow, what would be your next weapon of choice?
Matt: I know there’s going to be some objections to this, but if my goal is to kill things and that is my job – if it is literally in my job title, shadow-HUNTER – I would probably move to a more effective version of a bow and arrow. They’ve been around for a little while now. They’re called guns. Alec could probably benefit from having one. There’s some reasoning that it doesn’t work, but Luke has a gun and he saves the day a couple of times with it. I know that it doesn’t really work, because the show is demonic but… a gun.
If there’s a demon, your problem is solved, pull out your gun, just shoot it. Done.
(Fan says thank you and tries to leave, but Matt isn’t done)
Matt: And then we had those anti aircraft guns in Idris! Right at the end. Did you see those? Obviously guns are available and solved some problems, so… guns. Terrible thing, but they are effective at killing.
Fan: If you could transform into any animal, what would it be?
Matt: Any animal? Any animal at all? But I have to choose only one? I mean, there’s an obvious answer to the questions and that’s the killer whale. You have a whole bunch of friends. Top of the food chain. You get to kill sharks for fun. You play around and you’re basically a murderous psychopath but everyone thinks you’re just so cute. (Simpering voice) ‘oh it’s so cute. You see how it killed that seal and played with its dead body? It’s so amazing!’
That’s actually true for most of the animal kingdom. (awed) ‘See that owl? See how it’s tearing that animal to shreds? So beautiful… It’s just beautiful. Nature is just beautiful.’
People go on safaris and they see the reality of what nature is, which is horrifying… I don’t know if this story is true or not, but I like it anyway. Darwin was a religious man and what made him question god was the parasitic wasp. No one looks at the parasitic wasp’s larva crawling out of the paralysed host body of a cockroach and goes ‘AWESOME! That’s so good! What a beautiful thing!’ No, you say ‘Ew! It makes my skin crawl!’
One time I caught a fish and its tongue had been replaced by a type of parasite that latches on and eats and replaces the fishes tongue and I swear I almost vomited. To see it was abhorrent. Then again some people who love parasitic creatures would say ‘aaaaah, what a find! Yes! Amazing!’ And it WAS cool, I mean I’m still talking about it now..
So I guess the answer to your question is that the great thing about being in the animal kingdom is that when you are not getting brutally killed by something, you are brutally killing something and then humans go ‘wow! I want to film you!’ so… killer whale is the answer. I may have gone off topic… Parasitic wasp.
Someone’s going to tweet this and say ‘Matt just really wanted to be a killing creature’. And just to be clear, that’s not what I was saying. I was saying I wanted to be a parasitic wasp. Thank you.
Fan: If you could make your own TV show, what would it be about?
Matt: You all know the answer, so I have to change my answer.. I like the idea of a space cowboy! A guy who is operating outside the law. The Wild West is now outer space and he has a ship which is his horse, etc etc
Audience: Like Firefly?
Matt: Basically, yes! Same idea. But then again any space show, even Star Trek, was essentially just ‘Here’s a new town’ every episode, and we just use space as an excuse and discuss futuristic topics, which are very popular these days. So yes, it would be something that takes place in space.
Maybe it could be a space nature show. … That goes horrible wrong! And someone gets eaten by a parasitic wasp on another planet. That’s 20 feet tall and drags you off to his lair. (Matt looks at the fan who asked the question) You’re too young to know about parasitic wasps!
Do they still have the Discovery Channel showing animal shows on there? That was my favourite show on TV when I was a kid. But you have a different appreciation for it when you are older, when they stop giving you nothing but Steve Irvin, may he rest in peace, with his alligators. That’s a great show! You should fine that and watch all of it. It’s the best!
Fan: You were great as Pennywise in IT Chapter 2
Matt: Thank you. I know I did great. I was just there for the scenes where he was contorted, not the rest.
Fan: If you could be any member of the losers club, which one would you be, other than Mike?
Matt: aaaaaah man… The answer is Mike. Anything else would be a lie. It would be Mike, cause he’s who I like the most.
I don’t know who I’d be. They’re all so damaged. I haven’t read the book in so long, so I don’t know who I’d be. From the film though… I don’t know… Mike! Or Jessica Chastain’s character. I like her too.
Has everyone seen IT2? You all have to go and see it and support Isaiah. It only made like a billion dollars, so it needs some support.
Fan: I have two questions. What pizza do you like more – Italian Pizza or New York Slice?
Matt: What’s the second questions? I want to see if I can combine them
Fan: Where is your favourite place to get a New York Slice in New York?
Matt: Right. Italian pizza and New York pizza are two different things. It’s like comparing two things that cannot be compared. Do you like apples or oranges? I like both, for different reasons. Same as New York pizza vs Italian pizza. Italian pizza normally has better ingredients and I like the paper thin bread. Not crunchy, but soft.
My favourite place to get NY pizza was on 84th and Lex and I’d go there constantly and they closed a few years back. They were taken over by another place that actually sells pretty good pizza.
The best place to have a slice of pizza in New York is the place that’s closest to you. The point of pizza in New York is that it is there to feed you. You want food? You hungry? Pizza! There! One slice! Here! Money? Take! Great! Done!
That’s the best thing about pizza. It’s easy and it’s right there and you can eat it while you walk. And if you sit down while you eat it? Then… then… shame! Shame on you! Walk with it! Fold it in half! You get your metro card out and you swipe, still eating the pizza. Got oil dripping out the back? You’re an amateur. You have to be able to handle where the oil goes. You have to hold it really tight and balance it and know when it’s leaky, because you can tell instinctively.
Fan: What if you drop your metro card?
Matt: Pick it up! Why are you dropping your metro card? Ridiculous! Your scenario is nuts. If you drop your metro card, you know what, you’re not taking the subway, you’re walking!
Matt: And by the way, here’s a little tip.. not my most secret tip. Maybe one day I will release that one, because no one seems to know that tip, so that’s something to hold over your heads now. But the other secret tip is: If you see a metro card on the ground in a location that does not make sense, then it has money on it.
Audience: Duh…
Matt: Oh, so people know that? Good!! The key place is outside the entrance because someone went to get their wallet out or put the card back in their wallet, and it fell. And if you are a student in New York or an actor who doesn’t have any work and you have no money, you pick it up.
Now, if you’re a little older it’s no longer appropriate… So I just make sure that nobody is looking.
Fan: If Shadowhunters was the Hunger Games, who do you think would win?
Matt: (instantly) Alec would win! (laughter)
Obviously, this kind of conversation is really frustrating, because everything gets ruined by the god element, which is that the warlocks are unstoppable machines and Magnus is one of the best one, if not the best, so Magnus wins. It’s not even a close call.
Fan: Would Magnus save Alec?
Matt: I mean, it’s the Hunger Games…
Fan: Would he let Alec win?
Matt: But then you’ve got a problem. Because would Alec let Magnus win. So now we’ve entered into an issue so the only answer is, WE’VE GOT TO DESTROY THE SYSTEM. They have to work together and kill the bosses… I’m guessing that that’s what happens in the Hunger Games?
Audience: Yep
Matt: (big sigh) Surprise surprise…
Fan: Where do you think Malec went on their honey moon?
Matt: Where didn’t they go? They went everywhere! If you are not limited by travel time or financial concerns because, as I made pretty clear, he’s essentially married to a god, so yeah, they went everywhere. In fact for breakfast they went to one place, and then they decide they want to go to a museum in New York and then they want to get some food from a specific place in Hong Kong and they do all of that before 1pm because there is no limit to what they can do.
Like, let’s think about your house. It has various rooms, but if I set up a permanent portal and leave it in a doorway, then I walk from one room to the other and I actually have homes in 20 different places. I walk into the living room and I’m on the moon. I’m watching TV on the moon, I walk to the kitchen and get a glass of water and I’m in New York, I look outside and think ‘huh’ because my bedroom is all the way in China. You ever read the book Hyperion? It has a similar concept. It’s a good book. The first two, anyway. … End of discussion. Next question!
Fan: What’s the best pick up line you’ve heard, received, and used
Matt: What’s the best pick up line? The best pick up line is ‘Hello, my name is ____, what is your name?’ – That one works in pretty much every social situation.
Fan: Yeah but that’s an introduction
Matt: What is a pick up line other than an introduction? A pick up line implies something. It’s in introduction with an implication of further interaction. And the interaction is of a certain type. So if I came up and I went like so (makes monkey noises and arm gestures) that’s a pick up line, right? It’s pretty clear what I want, I think? Although for some others… like, check out what the giraffes do. It’s weird. Or what the gorillas do. It’s also pretty weird. Every animal has their own pick up line and usually it’s a little bit aggressive.
Now if I come up to you and say ‘Hi, hello, my name is Matt, and your name is, and then you say your name’ except you say ‘you know what, I have no idea where this is going, because you didn’t use a pick up line, so obviously it’s just an introduction. Now we are done. We have been introduced! End of discussion! Goodbye!’
No! An introduction in a setting implies what’s happening so you don’t need a pick up line. If I’m in a bar and I come up to you and I say ‘Hello my name is Matt’ and you say –
Fan: I’m Mercedes
Matt: And then you say ‘Oh this must be a pick up’ but you are wrong, because you didn’t look at the wedding ring!
(Audience goes crazy with whooping and cheering) …but in any other situation the pick-up is implied, and anything other than hello is silliness or cockamamie narcissism.
Fan leaves and Matt shouts ‘love you’ after her.
Fan: You mentioned in an interview that you crashed into a wedding and my question is how did you crash into said wedding?
Matt: I crashed into a wedding? Me? So just to be clear… I said in a public interview that I went to someone else’s special affair and said ‘S’up? I’m gonna eat your food. Looks great. Can I be part of your special day?’ and they said ‘You know what, this isn’t about us. This is about you, random guy!’ – And I was proud of that?
Are you sure I wasn’t making up some sort of humours anecdote like me wanting to be a parasitic wasp? Because I don’t – TO BE CLEAR – want to be a parasitic wasp. Just as much as I would never crash a wedding. Just as much as I would never steal a loaf of bread. These are all hypothetical things that I made up over the course of the day. And maybe tomorrow I will believe half of them. Maybe tomorrow half of your groups of twitter people will believe it because you put it on the internet as fact. ‘Matt says he steals loaves of bread.’ And ‘Matt says he’s a parasitic wasp.’
Just to be clear – we are going back to the situational learning – Anything I have said here is likely untrue.
So no. I didn’t do that. But that’s who I hope to be some day. He sounds like a good guy
Fan: If Alec was a social media influencer what would be – –
Matt: In the Shadow world or the existing world?
Fan: Could be either
Matt: Either way, he’s going to take butt photos.
Fan: Okay, but my question is what platform would he use?
Matt: Ah! I presumed the end of your question and I went the wrong direction with my answer.
What platform would he use? Erm… printed media is doing great. Newspapers. Magazines.
Fan: But what about social media?
Matt: Isn’t a newspaper social media? It’s just really slow… People write their opinion. ‘Last week you said XYZ and that made me angry!’ – it’s basically a message board, just a lot slower. Does social media have to be immediate? On social media nowadays you make friends with someone like this (clicks fingers) and now you’re my friend, because we share interests.
But really, I think things were better back in the old days. Since I’m 82, I don’t know if you know that, but I know this… There was a time when there was no internet. And you weren’t allowed to be friends with someone immediately. It took days! In fact you had to write to the newspaper and check out the situation.
‘John from down the street, I bumped into you at the laundromat. It seemed like you might be a good guy. You like football, I like basketball. Those are some shared interest.’ – And then John writes back to the newspaper and says ‘Yes, those are shared interests, but I am not interested.’ – Seven days wasted! Making friends back then was very difficult.
Anyway… Printed media, that’s the future!
Fan: Are you implying that you would make friends through printed media?
Matt: No, I am implying that Alec is out of touch. But yes, he would make lots of friends and then he’d be… y’know… all over the papers.
Fan: Thank you (tries to leave, but Matthew continues)
Matt: Is that still a saying? He’s all over the papers? Now you just say ‘Ah, he’s on Instagram! And…. he posts photos.’ – ‘Of what?’ they ask – ‘Erm… him? Sometimes him, with something?’
Fan: Okay, thank you (edging away)
Matt: I’m positive that I answered that appropriately!
Last question. Fan talks about the autograph session on Saturday and the message Matt wrote on her DVD for someone and that Kat posted a little video for this person, and she phoned and told the recipient about the messages, who has not stopped crying since…
Matt: The take away is that Kat made him cry!
Fan: You really made him smile, so thank you for that. My question: Yesterday Dom said that his time with Shadowhunters was finished and he wouldn’t come back for a season 4. Do you feel the same way?
Audience collectively groans and grumbles.
Matt: Okay, first of all Dom is doing.. what’s it called?
Audience: Penny Dreadful
Matt: No, I obviously know that! So yes, Dom is doing a TV show called Penny Dreadful and none of you have ever even heard of it. So he’s doing the thing when… what is it called when you say ‘Well, even if the show came back, I wouldn’t have done it anyway’ – what do you call that psychological method?
Audience shouts various terminology at Matt
Matt: Something. Whatever. The point is he didn’t mean it. If he even said that, which I am questioning. And I? Would I come back for season 4?
Fan: If the role was right and the time was right and what was going on in your life…
Matt: The thing is, the show ended… If we’d continued it would have been different and yes, obviously. But the show has ended, so coming back would be strange. I mean, you could see something in the long run, maybe… it would require some thoughts, and it would depend on the material
Fan: Yes, so if the story was right and you felt it was right and…
Matt: Well, if the story is right and you feel it is right, that’s cool, and the budget was 250 million dollars and it’s directed by Martin Scorsese, then yeah. (laughter) But that’s the optimal case.
I would also accept lesser situations.
Fan: When Dom said that yesterday I think it upset a lot of people, so..
Matt: Who? Dom upset people?
Fan: Yes
Matt: Kat made your son cry. Dom upset people. Seems that I’m the only one who saves the day… (laughter)
Look here… You enjoyed the show, right? They managed to wrap it up. We didn’t get hit like Santa Clarita Diet did. So many shows didn’t get what we got. Deadwood? Just done! Rome? Done!
We got an ending. And for that, I am grateful…
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